Cleanfarms 2021 Annual Report Shows Substantial Increases in Ag Material Recycling

May 20, 2022

Cleanfarms posted its 2021 annual report today, documenting the full results of its permanent programs and pilot projects designed and operated to help Canadian farmers manage agricultural plastic products and packaging.

Most important in the 2021 results is that Cleanfarms saw substantial growth in the collection numbers for the materials it collects for recycling and responsible disposal across the country suggesting that more farmers are using the services Cleanfarms offers and bringing back more materials. For example the numbers of small plastic pesticide and fertilizer jugs climbed by about 700,000 containers to 6.2 million containers collected for recycling, up a full 12.5% over the year before.

Often referred to as the “blue box” for farmers, Cleanfarms’ programs collect for recycling large and small plastic pesticide and fertilizer containers, used grain bags and baler twine. In some pilot projects, it is testing the collection of bale wrap and silage wrap which is used throughout Canada to wrap hay and to cover silage used as livestock feed. In addition, Cleanfarms operates programs that collect unwanted pesticides and old, obsolete livestock/equine medications for proper disposal. In eastern Canada, it collects seed, pesticide and in Quebec, fertilizer bags for proper disposal, and it operates pilot programs for these materials on the Prairies.

In a report to Cleanfarms members, Board Chair Boyd Bergstrom and Cleanfarms Executive Director Barry Friesen said “without exception Canadian farmers responded to every program and pilot, returning more materials for recycling than ever before”.

“Our hats go off to the farmers who, in the midst of another challenging year still grappling with the pandemic, continued to demonstrate pride in their farms by finding ways to recycle ag plastics and ensure responsible management of unwanted pesticides, expired and obsolete farm animal medications and empty seed and pesticide bags.”

2021 saw the implementation of a series of pilot programs throughout Canada that are generating critical data that point the way to the most effective, cost-efficient means of collecting, transporting and recycling harder-to-manage ag plastics. The materials collected through the pilots are also being used to develop recycling methodology and recycled-content applications with the intention of developing new end-markets and uses for recycled materials from the agricultural sector.

Cleanfarms collects ag waste materials through more than 1,500 recycling collection sites across Canada. Its recycling programs keep valuable resource materials out of landfill and the environment, and reinvested in the circular economy.

Cleanfarms is an agricultural industry stewardship organization that contributes to a healthier environment and a sustainable future by recovering and recycling agricultural and related industry plastics, packaging and products. It is funded by its members in the crop protection, seed, fertilizer, animal health medication, ag plastics industries. It has staff located in Lethbridge, Alberta; Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Etobicoke, Ontario; and St-Bruno, Quebec.

Source : Clean Farms

Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Canada is trying to decide how much agricultural research capacity it can afford to lose. Brian Rossnagel believes the better question is whether the country can afford to rebuild it.

The longtime barley and oat breeder makes the case with a simple fact about his profession: the consequences of today’s decisions may not become visible for 10 or 15 years.

“Pick the right parents. That’s the biggest thing,” Rossnagel says. “If you pick the wrong parents, you’re not going to get anywhere—and you don’t know that until 10 years, 15 years later.”

That warning carries particular weight as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada moves to reduce spending and streamline parts of its science operations. The department’s 2026–27 plan anticipates the loss of approximately 665 positions by 2028–29 and says some research will be reduced where capacity exists in academia or industry. AAFC says the changes will make its science operations more cost-effective over the long term.

For Canada’s seed industry, Rossnagel’s career illustrates what is at stake.

This fall, the retired University of Saskatchewan breeder will be inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. During his 35-year career at the Crop Development Centre, he helped develop more than 100 barley and oat varieties, including CDC Austenson—one of Western Canada’s most widely grown feed barleys. His induction recognizes not only those varieties, but the collaboration and research system that made them possible.

Rossnagel is quick to emphasize that none of it was the work of one person.

“The first thing I thought about was all the other people who contributed to whatever success I and my program had over the years,” he says. “We know that it’s not an individual who does this. It’s a group—a team.”

That team extends well beyond the breeder whose name appears beside a variety. It includes technicians, pathologists, quality specialists, statisticians, regional testing sites, seed growers and industry partners. It also includes the breeders who came before and those who will carry the germplasm forward.

CDC Fraser barley, for example, moved through three breeding careers. Its parents came from Brian Harvey’s program. Rossnagel advanced the material after Harvey retired, and Aaron Beattie later guided it through registration and release.

That kind of handoff is normal in plant breeding. The person who makes the original cross may never see the resulting variety reach farmers.

It also explains why lost research capacity cannot simply be switched back on when budgets improve.

“If you shut it off, it’s very, very difficult—and particularly costly—to start it up again,” Rossnagel says. “If you have to start from scratch, it’s going to be at least 10 years before anybody notices whether you’re getting anything done or not.”

The concern is not simply how many experimental lines Canada can process. Modern equipment, statistical tools and genetic technologies allow today’s breeding programs to evaluate tens of thousands of lines—far more than Rossnagel could handle when he entered the field in the early 1970s.

But efficiency and automation do not generate every idea.

“If you pare back down, and instead of having six or seven individual scientists concentrating on wheat breeding, you go down and say three people could handle all this, well, that’s half the ideas gone,” he says. “Particularly if you happen to lose the three people who had the really neat and innovative ideas, boy, that’s a problem.”

It is a timely distinction for Canadian agriculture. Consolidating programs may preserve the volume of material moving through a system, at least initially. It may not preserve the diversity of thinking, regional knowledge or willingness to pursue unconventional crosses.

That regional knowledge matters because Canadian agriculture is not one uniform production environment. A variety suited to southern Alberta may face different disease, moisture and maturity pressures than one grown in Manitoba, Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

“Agriculture is applied biology,” Rossnagel says. “Biology, all around the Earth, moves from the poles to the equator. It does not move from Newfoundland to B.C. like politics do.”